Jim Gaylord's work explores the contrast and synergy between polar forms: structures that are both architectural and body-like, both organic and man-made. He uses heavy watercolor paper in his cut-out pieces allowing him to realize abstract shapes in a three-dimensional, low-relief space. His compositions are assembled with a precision that gives them a sense of logic, but the uncanny results ultimately remain idiosyncratic and mysterious.

The aesthetics found in biology and nature shape much of Gaylord’s imagery. “I’m interested in eccentricity within order, like the peculiar anatomies within our bodies that, however strange, ultimately serve some purpose.” Allusions to figuration emerge alongside references to architecture and iconography, such as the ocular musculature depicted in “Seer Sucker” (2018). Holding the potential for multiple interpretations, Gaylord’s work offers a sense of openness to the viewer, evoking personal associations without being demanding. It is at once generous and insistent.

Approaching the works on paper as “constructed paintings,” light and shadow cast by raised areas become as important for the artist as pigment and color. In his most recent body of work, the paper cut-outs serve as studies for paintings on canvas. Taking into consideration their respective strengths and limitations, each medium informs a formal understanding of the other. With both methods, he continues to advance a personal vocabulary of abstraction.

Jim Gaylord’s work has been exhibited at a number of national and international galleries and venues, including the Brooklyn Academy of Music. His work is included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, the West Collection and the Progressive Corporation. Gaylord received his MFA from the University of California at Berkeley and has been awarded residencies at MacDowell and Yaddo. He has also received grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Joan Mitchell Foundation and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation.

Jim Gaylord lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.